Vacated Souls
by zzetta13
Summary: Story takes place a few days after the events of Grady Hospital. Rick Grimes has time to sit and think about things that he usually spends little time on...does he find any answers?


_**Vacated Souls**_

Author's note: As zombie movies, television shows, comics and other media run amuck with tales of the undead, most of the time it is found that the story begins after the apocalypse has already started, yet there remains the question, what started it all?

What led to the disease, plague, or whatever one wants to call it? What is the motivation which drives zombies into a frenzy of feast?

It is accepted that something happened. Something transpired in the world which resulted in vast hordes of undead humans taking over and spreading across the globe in a manner almost like of the great flood of biblical times. Only this cleansing...this mass change in the order of things uses people, instead of water for its purging. Was it an act of God, a terrorist attack, or maybe the government fiddling with nature and having their project go haywire? Still, the answer evades us...Anyhoo

This is just a short story, a little fill-in of the gap between the first half of season 5 and the second half of the same season. I don't know about other folk, but for me I am waiting in anticipation for what is to come next.

There is really something special and intoxicating about the show. Its creators know when to answer questions, and when to leave some questions unanswered, and then too...when to create new ones.

My thanks for reading, Z

_******** Vacated Souls ********_

The night was dark...and looking straight up through the trees of the forest and into the inky blackness of the sky, the man could see many stars. They clustered about here and there, and reminded him of people. The folk who'd survived this horrific situation he found himself in. A world in which strangers had bonded, where they had collected together and become friends, and sometimes family...and all because of what had happened to them so many months ago.

It wasn't often but Rick Grimes found himself with a moment where he had time to just sit down and contemplate, to think, a moment to reason, and just consider the thought to the question...WHY. Why were things the way they were? What had happened to the world while he lay in the vacant sleep of a coma? What had pushed civilized society to this point? Were we being punished? Had God deemed that his creation had faltered and needed to be eliminated?

Rick still did not know if he believed in the Entity (_an all knowing Being whom held the key to everything_). All he did know was that there were questions which still remained. Questions as to the reasons as why this had happened. The assumptions were countless, and there was no explanation for any of it at this time. As Rick recalled even Jenner had been confused as to what had led to the epidemic. The man was smart, but just because someone had intelligence didn't mean that they couldn't become crazy at the loss of a loved one.

Rick stopped looking at the stars and dipped his focus down to gaze upon the campfire before him. The flames of that fire flickered; they flickered and rose up as if possessing a trance all their own. And those bits of flashing light were certainly as intoxicating as the starlight up in the heavens above.

Rick's brain still remained frazzled. The flicker of the night's campfire did nothing to cease him from contemplating the cosmos, the universe, nor did it cause him to stop wondering about an explanation for this tragic event.

Months ago Rick had awakened into a unique situation. Who else in the nation, or in the world for that matter, could claim that they had regained consciousness, reformed their identity, after being aroused from a condition that was considered by some, as a living death (a comatose state), and, the unique part of it was, that he had awakened after apocalypse of sorts had ensued...Oh the cruelty of the Divinity. Still the ex-law deputy of King County was aware of his blessings. He knew that as he lay there, oblivious to the world, he knew that he could have been eaten alive, devoured by walkers without even knowing it.

Yes, as a conscious man he knew that there were things better than death, "Life". Even if it were that, _that life_ meant existing in a living hell.

Rick looked around at the others who surrounded the campfire. They were all asleep, that is, all but Daryl. Daryl Dixon had taken first watch, and in a few minutes Rick was supposed to relieve him. The camp was set well away from a road, but not so distant that any vehicle traveling along its path could not be heard. No, if there was one thing the Atlanta tribe had learned, it had gained knowledge, experience on how to survive. Whether out in the woods...in the mist of the wilds, or behind the walls of a secure compound, the Grimes Faction had adapted well.

Rick returned his gaze upon the fire. So what was it that walkers wanted? What was their focus of drive, their motivation?

It couldn't be that they were starving. No, there was no indication which spoke that after a walker had feasted, that the creature ceased its attack. There seemed to be no end to them wanting more. That led Rick to believe that there was something more at work here, something that pushed them, a desire that pressed them to want flesh, to crave it, to stuff it down their throats until their mouths ran red with the consumption of a living soul.

_Maybe that was it_, they weren't so much as hungry, but rather in search of a living soul to feast upon, to appease their appetite. Maybe something in the _undead brain_ told them that they had lost their own soul and needed another, that they could not enter the gates of heaven unless they gained a replacement.

It was just a theory, just speculation of course. Another idea to go along with other ideas in this crazy mixed up world. But if folk could believe in Nessie, or space aliens, or bigfoot, or any other thing like that, then why couldn't the assumption be that walkers were looking for new souls?

Rick heard a crackling noise behind him. He turned to see Daryl approaching the campfire, Mr. Dixon's crossbow firmly gripped in his hands.

"My turn for watch," Rick said, then questioned, "see anything out there?"

Daryl looked at all of the others around the campfire, the folk of his tribe lying peacefully asleep, and then he answered...

"Nope, I didn't see anything... but I thought I may have heard a Chupacabra out in the bushes somewhere."

Rick smiled to himself. What was it with Daryl and that mysterious blood sucking beast? Well, the ex-deputy figured each person had their own demons; their own monsters which haunted them before walking corpses became a reality. Although he was humored a little with the idea, Rick knew that he couldn't be critical; he had his own devils to conquer.

THE END


End file.
